[Katniss]

Originally Posted by nekohl

What's on my mind is parents. Not my parents but parents that I see day to day. I don't have children (and probably won't ever, unless it's one of those immaculate conception kind of things)

I have worked with children of all ages and from all sorts of socioeconomic backgrounds, with all sorts of disabilities and abilities, in the class room and out of the class room. In all of the years that I worked with children, with all of the frustration, and endless kid questions, and hissy fits, and pouting, I NEVER once treated a child the way I see some parents treat their kids.

It makes me angry to see a mom not paying one bit of attention to her kid, and then yelling at the kid to "sit your big ass down" when the girl (about 5years old) acts up for some attention.

It makes me sad to see a little boy looking at his dad with adoration and starting every sentence with "daddy, can we do this?" or daddy, look at that!!" only to have dad treat him like crap even going so far as to put his hand over the kids face to make him stop talking.

I realize that being a parent is hard. Sometimes you need a break. But it just burns me up to see kids treated so bad. By their own parents no less. I hope that should I ever have a child of my own, I show my child everyday how loved and special they are.

Can I just ask you to give your kid a hug today. Or at least let them know how much you love them, no matter how old they are.

Nekohl,

Isn't that the truth? Forget the DSi, Wii, and toy of the moment. All they really want is your time and attention. I find with my volunteer work construction paper, crayons and lying on the floor eye-to-eye quality time beats any other activity hands down. But better believe these are the same parents that wonder why their kids shut them out in the teen years.....